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‘The Mummy’ Drowns In The U.S., Soars Overseas

By Nick Younker
Published on: 15:32 PST, Jun 18, 2017

The Mummy has had a rough go in the United States over the past two weeks, but its international box office numbers have been a staggering safety net for the Tom Cruise action flick. Not only is the movie a remake of what was supposed to kick off the Universal Dark Universe, but it was also supposed to serve as a springboard for the whole franchise to muster up support for it from the devoted fans of horror movies.

The thing is, The Mummy never really stood a chance for fans of the horror genre who have become accustomed to R-rated horror films. The original film itself, The Mummy, starring Boris Karloff, was a staple in the horror community and chartered the first of a legion of devoted fans who loved the dark content that Universal was putting out in the early 20th century.

Now that The Mummy has finally released in theaters, horror fans are less-than-excited about seeing the PG-13 flick, and the box office returns show it, according to Variety. That includes the $32 million opening last week and the $14 million it added this week for a total of $56 million in the United States alone.

When you combine those numbers and compare them with The Mummy production budget of $125 million, then that spells trouble for Universal. But The Mummy does have a saving grace that has it holding up its chin.

According to data from Box Office Mojo, The Mummy has pulled in $239 million in international box office receipts, bringing its worldwide total to $295 million. But again, it is rare for a movie to perform so much better overseas than it does at the domestic box office.

So where does that leave the planned remakes of other films in Universal’s Dark Universe? Well, there is certainly a learning curve to acknowledge here over The Mummy, but things are going to have to change in order to get that core demographic into the theaters. One good step is for producers of other films like The Bride of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, and Dracula to find more common ground with its horror fans and at the very least, give it the R-rated treatment for those who demand it.

Watch the trailer for The Mummy below.

[Featured Image by Universal]

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